Based on a popular manga/anime(at least the non-North American versions are). The game was altered for it's North American release, as people weren't all that into anime yet, and it never aired on American TV in the '80's.

It's top down view, and you're constantly looking for secrets, which while that sounds similar to The Legend of Zelda, this one has stages and continues(infinite, but you restart at the beginning of the last stage you played). Boss battles, and some specific item search moments take place in side view. Even the altered North American version pretty much follows the story of Dragon Ball. As you look for items, you can find health restoration, staves(the red one makes you spin around, increasing your damage range, for a little while, on top of permanently giving you a staff for the rest of the stage, while the black one just gives you the staff), turtle shells for projectiles(usually with a limit of 3), "sandwiches" to run faster(these are the same graphics as Bulma's panties, when you get the first Dragon Ball from Roshi in the Japanese version...), and "?" for points, I guess. Sometimes you get the cloud to skip parts of the stage(not until at least in stage 3), or keys needed to move forward. The ultimate goal is to collect 7 "crystals"(/Dragon Balls) to make a wish, twice throughout the game. As I mentioned earlier, there are a bunch of hidden locations found by brushing up against parts of the stage, which often lead to item capsules. Enemies can drop them as well. Your health is also a timer counting down, which is why finding health can be important, but it comes down to luck, as every capsule is the game is random. Sometimes you'll lose simply because the health ran down to 0, though that's usually assisted by taking damage from enemies, especially bosses.